Oracle Corp is sending its Java programming tools – project Valhalla – to beta this week. Oracle says it has added a slew of enterprise functions around the Borland International Inc JBuilder Java language tools it signed for last February which form the core of Valhalla (CI No 3,093), including database integration and component-based development. Although the Valhalla tools could be used to write web sites, Oracle expects them to be used to write Java and object applications that reside on the middle-tier for accessing data stores across an enterprise. Valhalla is for Java developers who want to access databases, the company says. Applications can be wrapped up as Corba objects for use across object request broker by the use of integrated wizards, incorporate components written to Sun Microsystems Inc’s Java Enterprise Beans specification due to be announced this week and access Oracle database through the JSQL tools Oracle has developed with IBM and Tandem and JDBC driver providing native access to Oracle through Java applications. Oracle will make JSQL and JDBC available as an 8.04 upgrade to Oracle 8 this week. A mid-1998 release of Oracle’s Developer/2000 application development tools will support the re-use and reverse-engineering of applications created with Valhalla while a third quarter 1998 version of Designer/2000 will enable Java applications to be modeled graphically rather than hand-coded. The Java virtual machine Oracle will embed in the 8.1 release of its database due late 1998 and means that Java applications and Java stored procedures will execute natively alongside Oracle PL/SQL code.
